Personal task manager with graphic feedback

Posted by Graham Rhind
Nov 10, 2009 at 11:02 AM

Thanks Pierre Paul en Alexander.

I’m in the very luxurious position of defining my own project and tasks, my own workload and my own target dates. When I do have to complete a task with a defined due date, such as a conference presentation, I can simply postpone everything else until it’s ready, and then go back to my own tasks.

What I do find, though, is that I don’t have much idea about workload; or I plan something for a day I think is quiet but then find I’ve actually over-planned. Hence my wish for some sort of graphic solution.

I’ve tried Agenda at Once and at that time it had a bug in its recurring tasks, which has probably bee resolved in the meantime. But what that does require is that tasks are dragged to the calendar to be planned in - again, not my way of working.

What I like about Watership Planner is that it silently (and unobtrusively) fills the day with tasks as they are added, and silently shifts those in the time line as time progresses. I ignore any suggestions about the order that the tasks should be done (I define that, not any software I use), but what it does show at a glance is that I will finish work around 1 pm, for example, and so have lots of time for new ideas. If I have new ideas, a glance at the week overview tells me that Sunday has more planned than Monday, so I’ll add it for Monday. Similar to some Outlook add ins, to be sure, but much less obtrusive. So I can see total time planned and time available (also as figures and graphically outside the calendar window), and retain control over what is done when.

BUT ... Watership Planner creates all recurring tasks at once instead of when the previous task is completed. This allows for effective future planning but it doesn’t allow the inheritance of properties such as the notes or the context tags from one occurrence to the next, which is a real problem. The developer is working on a new version, but I’ve heard so many of these promises before from various suppliers that I prefer to work on the basis of what is available now than rely on what may be delivered one day ...

InfoQube continues to be an option, but it’s rather complex for what I require - it would need to be used as a replacement for several programs. I’m sure it’s absolutely capable of it, but I’m waiting for a completed manual so that I can get to a better understanding of what it can and can’t do (forgive me PPL if that is already available and I’ve missed it ...).